Spanish & Ice

Last night was my first night to volunteer with the LEAF (Learning English Among Friends) Program in Waco. Set up through a Baylor professor, this program helps native Spanish speakers to learn English with the help of tutors. Studying abroad in Spain I learned what it felt like to not be able to communicate with people as well as you would like to and how frustrating that can be. I hope to help these willing learners adapt to life here in America and hopefully they will be able to communicate with the people here more efficiently. I very much enjoy volunteering and helping people, and I also love having an excuse to practice my Spanish :) 

Last night it sleeted and froze here in sunny Texas, which meant we woke up to a delightful email delaying all classes until 10am this morning. It was a nice little treat right before finals get into full swing. I feel like I've already been studying for finals for weeks now, but the brunt of it is still yet to come. 

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Weekend Update

So we have passed yet another weekend in the land of Waco. I can't wait until the summer when we'll be spending most of our weekends in AUSTIN!! Hooray!!

Anyways, Friday was good, we rented a couple movies but ended up going to bed pretty early. Dustin had gotten up at 4:30am the past two days in a row and was pretty zonked. Saturday we studied almost all day. I had to take a break in the afternoon to meet with a prospective student since I'm a student ambassador and that went well. Saturday evening we went to dinner with another couple and had a lot of fun. We went to Baris, which Dustin and I had always talked about trying. It's a super good, super cheap, BYOB Italian hole in the wall. Afterwards we went back to their place for some more wine and s'more cupcakes, delish! Sunday was once again dedicated to studying, have I mentioned that I hate finals? I can't imagine what it will feel like in a little over a year to be done with school and tests and exams FOREVER! Poor Dustin spent 4 hours Sunday reading for one of his classes only to find out he had been reading from the wrong book. As you can imagine that was pretty frustrating for him. 

Today its back to the daily grind. I only have class this week through wednesday then dead days and finals start. As soon as finals end we plan to head up to Slaton for a three day weekend to see Dustin's grandfather in the hospital. He is still recovering from his surgery but, as can be imagined, would rather be in his own home than in the hospital. We ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Have a good week everyone!

Thankful for the Little Things

I haven't been updating much lately because there is nothing of interest to write about. Dustin and I have both been spending ridiculous amounts of time at school or studying for school. In the midst of complaining about our lack of fun time I've enjoyed thinking about all the things we get to do that I really enjoy: 

-cooking dinner together every night

-taking the dogs out to "our field" by Baylor to play fetch and run around

-waking up together every morning

-reminiscing about how great Austin/UT was and is

-helping each other out in the little ways that we can each day

-having a spouse that has to spend as much time on school as I do

-study breaks to watch an episode of one of our favorite shows on DVD

Hope everyone else has been enjoying this lovely 70-degree January! 

And the weeks fly by...

This week went by fairly quickly as we were both very busy. 

My group and I prepped our expert Tuesday night and did our deposition Thursday night. Everything went pretty well despite the PC students obnoxiously objecting to every question we asked. I did feel somewhat bad for the doctor we were deposing, he was a third year resident but still got flustered with our questions. We told him he did a really good job, which he did, and hopefully he won't ever have to be deposed in real life. 

We also received some sad news on Thursday, Dustin's grandfather fell and broke his hip. He went into surgery Friday and came out of that well, so we are very thankful. He will remain in the hospital through Sunday. Dustin is calling regularly for updates and we might be going up there in February as soon as my winter finals are over. Please keep him in your prayers. 

We plan to spend most the weekend doing homework. I'm thankful to have three full days to spend studying for my upcoming finals and Dustin is trying to keep up with his reading and get ahead on a paper that is due soon. 

Hope everyone enjoys their three day MLK weekend!

Weekend

Friday Dustin picked me up from class in the afternoon and we went to an early movie: Benjamin Button. We both really liked it and didn't even notice that it was a pretty long movie. After the movie we came home, made spaghetti, drank some wine and played cards. I love playing cards, the face to face time is something we don't get watching movies together and I always enjoy the "competition." 

Saturday I had to meet with my group, or co-counsel rather, up at school to get ready for our depositions this week. My group decided to be the plaintiff's side which I'm having a hard time getting in the mindset for because we're suing doctors and I come from a doctor/nurse/dentist type family. Plus I just don't like plaintiffs lawyers. Anyways, I'll be working on my theatrical skills to pull this one off. 

After the meeting I went to lunch with my friend Trisha while Dustin finished "Into Thin Air," which he has been engrossed in recently. Dustin very much likes non-fiction adventure books, so I hope we can find some more good ones for him to read. 

Dustin and I spent the afternoon studying/doing homework (gosh I can't wait to be out and working!) before renting a couple movies and having a nice evening together. One of the movies we rented was "Burn After Reading" which we really liked, very dry humor. We also rented the Cameron Diaz movie about Vegas simply because there was nothing else much to rent, and ended up really liking it- surprise!

Sunday we tried a church we've been to before and very much want to like but just don't. You can tell it was once a big, full church and now its mostly older people and the congregation seems very small for the size of the church. We will try another church next week and if that doesn't work out maybe go back to the one we have been visiting off and on. We've found many decent churches but none that we really like, plus its difficult to make the effort when we are 100% sure we'll be leaving Waco in a year. 

Dustin starts back to school today, he has new classes and new students to meet with at work. I think this semester is supposed to be pretty challenging for him, like last semester was, but I think the second year of this program has a lot less reading/work. 

Hope everyone had a relaxing and wonderful weekend!

NYE & Christmas with the Thompsons

We spent the end of our break in Slaton with Dustin's parents.  We arrived at their house from our ski trip on NYE and had fun there with Dustin's sister Erin, her boyfriend Dillon, Dustin's parents and a variety of NYE hats and noisemakers. 

While in Slaton we also had our Christmas gift exchange with Dustin's parents. I appreciate how thoughtful they are with me, they had obviously paid attention when I'd been there before and mentioned things I like, and that means a lot to me. Among many other things, I got a James Avery heart necklace that I really like. One of Dustin's favorite presents was a new khaki jacket from Oakley. He had one before and just wore it to death, this new one looks really sharp on him :) 

For Dustin's parents I crocheted an afgan that matches the color of the couches in their living room. Dustin helped with picking out colors. I had to start the blanket in August to be done with it by Christmas, but I think it turned out well considering its only the second afgan I've ever made. Hopefully they'll find any imperfections to be part of the charm ;) Here's a photo of Dustin modeling the blanket right before we wrapped it: 

We spent a good amount of time with Dustin's grandfather, which I know was really important to both of them. We also, during that time, watched a good amount of football. I've never been a fan of watching sports, but college football has really grown on me since I met Dustin, so a good time was had by all. 

One night Dustin's parents took us out to one of those fun Japanese restaurants where they cook all the food in front of you on the hibachi grill. It was a really neat idea and the food was fabulous.....they even did the onion volanco :) Afterward we went over to visit Dustin's Aunt Sasa and her husband Randy. They are two of my favorite relatives of Dustin and we really enjoyed spending the evening with them. 

We're now back in Waco. I'm already back in class and Dustin has various things to do for work before he starts back to class next Monday. My finals are rapidly approaching and I'm not thrilled about it. Winter quarter is always the hardest for me because you go a couple weeks, then have thanksgiving break, then a couple more weeks, then christmas break, then a couple more weeks and its finals: you never really get into the school groove, its just all broken up. Oh well, wish me luck. 

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2009 and how 'bout them HORNS?!?!